


i will share your road

by Muir_Wolf



Category: Lord of the Rings (Movies)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-28
Updated: 2012-06-28
Packaged: 2017-11-08 18:16:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/446083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muir_Wolf/pseuds/Muir_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The prompt was: Third Age - Legolas/Aragorn, <i>I'll follow you into the dark,</i> but I'd say it reads more as preslash or close friends.  Set during the Battle of Helms Deep.</p><p>
  <i>Ready for battle, as he’d been earlier, Aragorn’s face still softens when he sees Legolas standing in the doorway.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	i will share your road

The long passages of time sometimes lay heavy on the shoulders of Elves; the weight of years past and companions lost to the slow erosion of time pool together, and raindrops become streams become rivers. Legolas is no stranger to the march of time.

The others forget, sometimes, how old he is and what he has seen. He sees it in Boromir’s eyes as they pass over him as he were a child. He sees the casual incomprehension in Pippin and Sam, for whom centuries stretch into the past and the future and still have no meaning in the unlined face of Legolas Greenleaf. He does not let it bother him.

Aragorn, he knows, never forgets the depth of his experience, or the cost of it. Sometimes, though, it is Legolas that forgets how young Aragorn is in the vast scheme of the world. It seems as if he has kept step with him forever, but despite the wisdom in his soul, despite the mark he has left on Legolas’ life, it is a small space of time he occupies.

There is something fragile in these human bodies, and it burns in Legolas, that Aragorn will fade into night. They all risk their lives against Sauron, but Aragorn has already been cursed to die, and the greatness that Legolas can see inside him will die with him. Legolas has never lived long amongst humans, and perhaps that is why it tears at him, and perhaps that is why Legolas seeks Aragorn out and follows in his steps. There is a strength in him that he does not understand.

In the dusk, before night falls over Helm’s Deep, before this battle begins, Legolas finds him. Ready for battle, as he’d been earlier, Aragorn’s face still softens when he sees Legolas standing in the doorway. There is fear tight in Legolas’ chest, but not for himself; he can feel the years at his back, the history of his life rolled out like a parchment worn thin.

“You must be careful,” he tells Aragorn softly, admonishingly. “Arwen expects me to protect you.” He thinks his voice is steady enough, but it must crease and bend in ways Aragorn can decipher, because he stands and comes closer, an affectionate smile curling onto his lips. 

“I’m always careful,” Aragorn say softly. His skin is rough but his movements gentle as he cups the back of Legolas’ neck.

“When you fell—” Legolas says, but his voice catches and he quiets, because he’d held Arwen’s pendant and thought of long years that stretched ahead, empty without him.

“I’m here,” Aragorn says, his voice a low growl. He brushes the top of Legolas’ head with his chin, his free hand slipping to the small of Legolas’ back.

Legolas takes the comfort that Aragorn offers up so easily, focuses on the breath entering Aragorn’s body and the strength coiled in his limbs. His slender fingers slide along Aragorn’s cheek; he tips his forehead against Aragorn’s.

“I will protect you,” he swears, a foreign need for salvation on his tongue, and there is something like devotion in Aragorn’s eyes.

“We will all of us need protecting before the end,” he says.


End file.
